If you want to talk to my Shanghai fathers and countrymen, the evening newspaper is the best. It is oriented to the public and has a special warmth and relevance.
When a friend told me that the Xinmin Evening News commemorated the 40th anniversary of its resumption of publication, I was stunned. Time is really fast. I graduated from college 40 years ago, worked as a Language teacher at a company-run staff school, and wrote novels and essays in my spare time. We have a group of amateur authors who meet regularly in the West Hall of the Writers' Association to discuss literary topics of interest to everyone. That's when I got to know the reporter and editor of the evening newspaper. Shanghainese rarely say "Xinmin Evening News" in its entirety, and the "night newspaper" they call "Xinmin NightLy, Eat enough for Dinner" is this newspaper. Writing a novel for a literary magazine takes months or even half a year to publish, and it is much faster to write a novel for a literary magazine, and much faster in the evening newspaper's supplement, the Luminous Cup. A few days after writing it, someone will tell you that you have published an article, and he will see it. Isn't it wonderful that the evening newspaper distributes more than 1 million copies at its peak, that is, printing your name 1 million times?
If you want to talk to my Shanghai fathers and countrymen, the evening newspaper is the best. It is open to citizens, with street talk and eating and drinking that they care about. They often talk about some small topics in detail, which has a special warmth and relevance. Writing for the evening newspaper is not hard, writing is non-fiction, and there is no need to make up any story. Find a little thing to say, be happy, or be sad, and you will find those who feel the same way in this city. I've written about traveling in newspapers, about my daughter, about reading books and listening to music, and I can't remember how many articles I've published. The most special thing is that it published the first photo of my life, the kind of photo that is bright and honest, frank and frank. In that photo, I wet the blanket from the photo studio as a baby. The editor asks the reader to guess who this kid is. How wonderful it is, this is like the life of a citizen of a city, there are births and deaths, there are days that are passing, there are them traveling around in this city, there are the joys and sorrows of sentient beings.
Photo of Chen Cun in Xinmin Evening News on February 27, 1995
In recent years, I have opened a column called "Chen Cun Photo Studio", and every time I publish a photo I take, I write hundreds of words below. Most of the people in the photo are residents of our city, everyone knows or has heard of, and the portrait is posted in this Shanghai evening newspaper to meet the citizens, which is also a very pleasant thing for them. It's a blessing to be with their contemporaries.
Now with the Internet, newspapers are read less. But reading a newspaper is not the same as reading the Internet. The net is like a layer of slick oil, it comes and goes quickly, it has been written for many years, the website may not exist, and those pictures and texts have disappeared. Newspapers are different. Newspapers are properly preserved in major libraries, read decades and centuries later, where names and texts that were once printed 1 million times are still there. Many of the things in the newspaper, separated by years, may be more interesting. People find out from this the traces of the city and predecessors of that year. Are they going to ask, who is the boy in the open crotch pants?
I know a lot of evening newspaper editors, and some of them are retired like me. They are the most dedicated group of people, working meticulously. Now, the evening newspaper is not only printed on paper, but also lying on the Internet. Now an article in the newspaper has spread farther and faster than ever, and a big foot has opened to the mobile phone of a friend abroad.
Congratulations to the Xinmin Evening News on its 40th anniversary of its resumption, I wish it a long life and a hundred years, and I wish it a hundred years to come. To love the Evening News is to love Shanghai, and it is inseparable from the city of Shanghai. The Bund and Lujiazui are Shanghai coats or tuxedos for performances, and the evening newspaper is Shanghai's underwear, the most comfortable clothes worn by old Shanghainese when they are in the cool breeze, and the warm hand that caresses children's brains.
There's nothing more to say, I'm trying to say one, and I think this newspaper is very good. Thank you editor, thank you to my evening newspaper readers, thank you Xinmin Evening News. (Chen Cun)